


Survivors and Otherwise

by werpiper



Series: KILIEL (for M-E values of) 4EVA [3]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Canon Compliant, Declarations Of Love, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 10:33:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1172017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/werpiper/pseuds/werpiper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Tolkien allowed for second chances.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Survivors and Otherwise

Tauriel started crying when Kili fell. She ran to him, but there was no life left to save. She pulled the tiny arrows from his quiver and killed the dozen goblins that surrounded Kili and his kin, driving them through orc-flesh like daggers, and black blood fell hot on her skin. It tasted like her own tears.

How many hundreds, thousands of lives had she seen to end, or ended herself, that this one should undo her? After the battle Legolas found her, still weeping, unable to stop. She followed him unresisting to a place on the Lake-shore, allowed him to release her armor, to strip and wash her garments, to clean her skin and re-braid her hair. Sometimes her tears flowed and sometimes they didn't. They stood together in the cold water for a long time, among the small sounds of splashes and ripples, the faraway murmurs of victory celebration, the quick movements of frogs and fish.

"Please don't mourn," said Legolas at length. "You survived the battle. It would be unjust for you to die like Luthien."

That stopped her. Tauriel had not been Kili's wife; not even his betrothed. Was her heart broken? She tested it. The starlight inside her seemed chill, and even the stars in the sky flayed her with her memories. But as Legolas held her, she watched a thin sliver of moon rise over the horizon, and that changing light gave her something close enough to hope.

"I'll mourn," she said thickly, "but it won't kill me."

After sunrise, Legolas accompanied her to the Lonely Mountain. The remains of the Dwarves had been laid in state. They had been patched together and dressed in the richest armor, gold and mithril; the blood had been cleaned away and their eyes were closed. On Thorin's breast was a great white gem, as brilliant as Thranduil's ring, and the Elven sword that Thranduil had taken from him in Mirkwood. Fili's golden hair was braided through with a glory of silver threads, and Tauriel wondered if that resembled Galadriel's storied beauty.

At last she looked on Kili. His face was covered with an iron helm, and his corpse had a stony stillness that reminded her that his people had first been forged, not born. She wondered if it was true that after death they returned to earth, and felt tears on her face again. "Leave me here alone," she asked, both of Legolas and the mourning dwarves. "I must see him this way, to remember him dead as well as living, so I can honor all that he was."

Legolas looked dismayed but nodded, and he looked fiercely at the dwarves, and they all withdrew. Tauriel sat down beside the low stone bier. First she wept, then she sang, and then she cried again. She touched Kili's cold fingers, dropped them immediately. She set to work on her weapons, tending the fletches, rolling a new bowstring, and sharpening every edge.

The mountain chamber had no natural light, but there were oil lamps and a bottle. She refilled them when they flickered. Once she tried to sleep, but her dream was restless; she walked in a tapestried hall, she needed to walk somewhere else. Waking, she paced the room, then stood over Kili's corpse. She would finish her mourning and return to her duties. "I could have loved you, Kili. Yes," she said, and started to cry again, and sat down and started sharpening an arrowhead.

When starlight stole into the room it did not startle her. It was too familiar to seem wrong. When iron clanked and Kili sat up Tauriel froze. When he took the casque from his head and smiled at her she gasped. "Saved me again," he said, his voice rich with laughter, as always.

Tauriel couldn't move. She wondered if she was dead after all, if these were the Halls of Mandos and not the Lonely Mountain. But Kili swung off the bier to kneel beside her, small and solid and alive as ever, with his scent of dry stone and heat radiating from him like a forge. He put a hand on her face. "Tauriel," he said, "don't cry?"

"I'm not," she said reflexively, "I wasn't -- Kili, you were dead!"

He half-smiled, half-shrugged. "Mahal mended me. I had your blessing. I don't belong in the Halls of Waiting." His eyes widened, searching hers. "Tauriel," he said, "might I belong with you?"

She nodded. He reached out an armored hand, and she unbuckled the gauntlet and stripped it off, felt the strong pulse in his bare wrist, then turned her face to kiss his hand. His skin felt hotter than sunlight, and his nails were clean and solid, not ragged as she remembered. He slipped his fingers beneath her jawbone, moved closer, and kissed her mouth.For a long time they sat together, kissing, then breathing one another's breath, hands entwining in each other's hair. The fuzz on Kili's cheeks was not rough as it looked, but furry, like a small animal. The thought made her chuckle, then gather him closer, pulling him into her lap like a pet. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and dropped her face into the crook of his neck. For a moment she thought she might cry again, but Kili sighed into her ear, then kissed its tip so lightly she moaned.

His arms tightened around her, and suddenly Tauriel could not bear the feeling of his armor, so heavy and cold. She went to free him from it, but found she was trapped -- Kili held both her arms pinned to her sides. He laughed, leaning into her, trailing kisses down her ear to her jaw, nipping her neck. "Dwarves forged those prison cells for your folk, captain," he said. "You relied on our strength."

At that, she moved from her center, turning and rolling so Kili hit the ground on his back and Tauriel lay upon him. She reached behind her back and seized Kili's smallest finger, levered his arm over his head and pinned him to the floor. "I am a fighter," she observed mildly, "and rely on many gifts and skills."

Kili bucked hard, testing, but only managed to twist his own wrist -- as long as he held still, it didn't hurt. Finally he lay back, put his free hand behind Tauriel's neck, and pulled her face to his, her mouth to his mouth. They kissed deeper this way, Tauriel winding her tongue against his.

"Too much dwarven forgework," Tauriel said after awhile. "I would be done with it." With her free hand she unclasped a ring that held Kili's armor closed over his chest. He gave a low whistle and tried to help. His archer's gauntlet clanked on his chest-plate, so she unbuckled that; together they opened the hauberk. Then she let him sit up and they pulled off plate, mail, and padded leather.

Beneath those Kili wore nothing, but dwarves are suited to stone, and he let himself sprawl comfortably. "Hot as a flame...." Tauriel said, running her fingers through the hair on his limbs and chest and belly. When she touched his neck he squirmed, at his nipples he gasped, and on his prick he groaned and looked at her beseechingly.

Tauriel smiled down at him, bent to add her mouth to her hands, dropping kisses here and there, small bites in between. Kili wound his fingers through her hair, and sometimes she let him guide her head; other times she pushed back and he could only give in. She nudged his hip until he rolled reluctantly onto his stomach, but when she licked from his nape to his ass he mewled into the stone and bucked again. She pinned him in place, his wrists crossed behind his back with one of her long hands, his legs pushed apart by her knee. "Yes, love, sing for me," she crooned, "it was too quiet without your voice."

He tried to obey but could form no words nor tune, only gasp and echo "Love!" Tauriel set her teeth into Kili's shoulder and lay down upon him, leather tabard against his back, nearly weightless but immovable. He heard her breathing deep, felt her belly rolling over his hips. When one long finger trailed up between his thighs he stiffened. When she enfolded his sac his breath stopped in his throat. When her slender thumb pushed into his hole and found the pleasure within, he screamed "Tauriel!" and spent.

She held him while he shook beneath her, then gently released him, hovering just above him, her hair falling around them like a silken sheet. "Could you love me?" she whispered in his ear.

"I can do nothing else," said Kili, "Not walk through the woods, nor fight a dragon, nor defend my king, nor stay with my brother and my Maker when I... I died, Tauriel." Kili felt tears on his face, let them fall to the cold floor. Tauriel lay silent and motionless on top of him, and Kili shrugged her weight back and turned over, reaching to hold her close. He looked into her eyes, seeing all the greens and greys of Mirkwood, all the light of stars. "Tauriel, I loved you since I saw you, the first time you saved my life. I love you better than Mahal or," his voice caught but he said it, "Thorin and Fili. Tauriel. I love you." A corner of his mouth drew up. "I never thought I'd invite an elf to search my trousers." She laughed and Kili hugged her. His fingers started tracing the seam where her jerkin split at her waist. His voice dropped to a whisper. "What's hidden in yours?" His strong arms lifted her shoulders and he gazed down her body, looked up again through long lashes, dark eyes gleaming.

Tauriel drew back enough for them both to reach her lacings. Under the jerkin Kili found her skin as cool as water, her body smooth and solid as water-worn stone, save for curves as soft as water flowing. His touch felt hotter than sunshine, melting her like metal to be forged, and she writhed, trying to feel him everywhere at once. Kili lifted Tauriel again, set her beside him so they could pull off her boots and leggings. When her feet were free, he tasted her toes and began to kiss his way up her limbs.

"So tall...." Kili muttered, then with satisfaction, "Ah, hidden treasure! There's your beautiful beard." He pushed himself between Tauriel's legs and kissed her cunt as he had kissed her mouth, opening her with his tongue, closing his lips around hers. She still tasted like kingsfoil. Tauriel made an animal purr of pleasure, crossing her hands on her chest to touch her breasts herself, letting her knees fall apart to make room for the dwarf between them. He delved deeper, sliding a finger inside her as she bloomed wet and slick as dew, heard her groan and replied in kind. Her voice rose higher, keening and sweet, and Kili nudged her hips up and put his other hand behind her ass, pressing his thumb to her hole. As soon as she enveloped him she came, rippling hard around him in waves, her voice breaking, ululating, his name aloud.

While she caught her breath Kili moved his hands to her waist, pulled himself up to gaze into her face. She reached for him in turn, guiding his hips so that his prick was at her entrance, then pushed herself upon it. For a long moment neither one of them moved or even breathed, only locked themselves together, body to body and eyes to eyes. Then Kili thrust in and Tauriel pressed back, and they began to move together. At first they were as leisurely as they had been kissing, quiet and slow. But with each little touch they urged each other on until they pounded together as hard as fighting, gripping and gasping. They came together, both blinded by a hot white light.

Tauriel sat up, sliding their bodies around so Kili sat cradled in her lap, embraced by her arms, his head above her heart.

"I love you too," she said softly, as Kili nestled against her. "You showed me the world, and it is a brighter and bigger place than I knew." She shivered all over, once, and whispered, "So much warmer, with you here."

For a moment it was quiet, in the deep cavern of the mourning room. "We can't stay here," said Kili. "They'll want me to be King."

Tauriel laughed. "I would not be Queen." Then her voice became sad. "I don't know if we will have children."

"They'd only want them to be King, too, and that's no good," said Kili. "Do you mind so much?" He hesitated, then added softly, "I came to you from Mahal's hands...."

Tauriel considered, then shrugged and kissed Kili's fingertips. The hands of the Makers, indeed. In the Halls, a beam of starlight twisted with an iron vein, and the tapestry threw sparks.

**Author's Note:**

> This is essentially text-compliant, albeit interpretive, by the "matter of Glorfindel" and "Durin the Deathless".
> 
> Also (and mostly really) an attempt at pure sweet smut with my favorite interracial couple in M-E.
> 
> There will be one more bit, as I can't leave them in this grim chamber for too long.


End file.
